On the Development and Current State of the Pronunciation Norm in French Language

This article is devoted to the development and current state of the French pronunciation norm. Learning a foreign language pronunciation in its standard variant is a difficult task not only due to the need to master new articulatory gestures, but also to understand what is normative in pronunciation. For the French language, which has more than 90 million native speakers, the issue is particularly acute. Since the establishment of French as a state language, the choice of pronunciation standard was based on the pronunciation of certain social groups (royal nobility, educated classes, radio presenters) and geographical boundaries (Paris, Ile-de-France region, major cities of France). The codification of the French pronunciation norm has evolved from strictly prescriptive to reflecting the maximum possible variants. The recent decades researches reveal a lack of uniformity in the pronunciation of native speakers, even within a homogeneous group. The modern pronunciation norm indicates the absence of a single rigid pattern and its wide regional variability.